The present invention relates to protective headgear, and more particularly to chin straps for such headgear.
A various assortment of protective headgear or helmets has been proposed in the past for protecting the wearer's head in the event of a collision. Such helmets have been widely utilized by participants in a number of sports, where the possibility of head injury is great, such as football, hockey, and baseball, and for other purposes, such as crash helmets. Of course, it is necessary to retain the headgear at the proper position on the wearer's head during use, in order to minimize the possibility that the wearer may be injured when struck. Chin straps have been provided for this purpose, and generally include a chin cup positioned against the wearer's chin and one or more straps extending from the chin cup to the headgear in order to retain the headgear in place on the wearer. A chin strap has been proposed which utilizes two straps which cross at spaced points in the region of the chin cup for the purpose of stabilizing the helmet on the wearer's head. However, it has been found that this arrangement of straps does not properly distribute forces against the chin, and particularly the front part of the chin where the forces are directly applied from the helmet against the chin through the straps. Additionally, it is desirable to provide a chin strap which affords maximum comfort to the wearer during use of the helmet.